Minimum purse for black type increases

North America's members in the Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers have raised the minimum purse requirement for races to earn black-type designation in sales catalogs. Effective Jan. 1, 2007, races must have a total purse of $45,000, distributed on the day of the race, in order to be eligible for black type. The current minimum purse requirement is $40,000. The minimum purse level will be raised again, to $50,000, on Jan. 1, 2008. SITA also said it will not grant black type to races that contain "a preference clause(s) based on criteria unrelated to the quality of the horse...if such a preference clause(s) could possibly exclude any horse(s) of superior quality from competing."

SITA secretary Carl Hamilton said that this change would not affect restricted statebred races. "Over the last several years, we've had a very few cases of races that were offering preferences to statebred horses," Hamilton said. Races that prefer statebreds on entry but are not restricted to statebreds are rare, Hamilton said. "You could probably count them on one or two hands," he said. "We wanted to make sure those don't proliferate. "All restricted races previously eligible are still going to get black type," he added. Races offering bonuses only to statebreds also will continue to be eligible for black type provided their base value for all horses reaches the minimum purse level.